First Day
by blueicicle
Summary: She moved a box that was a little too heavy, he started drinking a little too early. AU of how Jeff and Annie first met, taken from a prompt from scamdal on tumblr: meeting while waiting for hours on end in the emergency room au


When Annie got to the ER at 4:30, it was already packed, so she really shouldn't be that surprised that she's still waiting an hour later. Didn't matter.

It was just a stupid sprained wrist from moving a box that was too heavy. She could have read half her Spanish textbook by now, but instead she was sitting in the Greendale Hospital emergency room, without even a notebook or a piece of paper to practice her verbs.

Stupid wrist.

At the start of the second hour, she had counted the tiles in the ceiling fifteen times, and managed to sync the throbbing in her wrist with the ticking of the clock, as well as the snores of the man with the flu sitting across from here. Fun first day of college.

She was jolted back to reality by a tall man dropping heavily into the seat next to her, startling the snoring man awake. Annie looked over at the new, bored, slightly tipsy, fellow patient. As a testament to her utter boredom, she decided to strike up a conversation.

"What's your 'chief complaint'?" she said, leaning over to make sure he knew she was talking to him. He turned surprised.

"Cut on my hand. You?"

"Sprained wrist. How'd you cut your hand?"

"Broken scotch glass. Your wrist?"

"Moving boxes of books." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Barely 5:30 and you were drinking? Special occasion?"

He sighed. It was incredible how much depression he could convey with one exhale of breath. "First day back at college. I had to do freaking Spanish homework like a teenager, and then I got to drinking."

Annie was starting to slowly realize who she was talking to. She knew he had looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place her finger on it until he said Spanish. "Spanish class with Senõr Chang, Blackberry, played Bejewled for forty minutes?"

He nodded. "Jeff. Hey, don't you sit in the front, center desk? Asked about extra credit?"

She nodded, starting to grin at the fact that someone noticed. "Annie Edison."

Jeff smiled at the fact that he finally knew her name. Maybe now it would be easier to find a road in. "You said you were moving boxes? Just move into a new apartment?"

"My first apartment, actually," She replied. "I moved out of my parents house a couple of days ago."

Jeff narrowed his eyes. "First apartment? How old are you?"

"Just turned 18."

Damn it.

"So what are you doing at Greendale? Couldn't you go to Harvard or something? You seem pretty smart." Jeff asked.

Annie looked around, up at the ceiling, down at her shoes. She didn't want to see his reaction. "Um, I kinda… lost my scholarship…"

That startled him. "Lost your scholarship? What did you do?"

She scratched the back of her head, looking down at the floor. "Um, just a brief little addiction to pills… lost my scholarship… and my virginity…"

He raised his eyebrows, surprised. "At least it makes a good story?" He attempted to lighten the mood a little.

She laughed. "I guess. I just got out of rehab a couple of months ago, and then I enrolled in Greendale. What's your story?"

"It's a depressing one," he sighed. "Are you sure you want to know?"

She nodded, making her hair bounce. "I told you my depressing story, you tell me yours."

"Fine. I can't say no to those eyes.

"I was a lawyer."

"Ew."

"Oh, be quiet. So, I was a lawyer. I defended a stripper really well, drew attention to myself, and they found out I had lied about my degree. So, I was disbarred, and forced to come to Greendale."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

Annie looked up at him. "That is depressing."

"Annie Edison."

She snapped her eyes away from Jeff.

"I guess it's my turn," she said pointing her thumb towards the nurse who called her name.

Jeff sighed. "Too bad. Now I'll have no one to wait with and complain to."

"Do you want to come in with me?"

He was taken aback by that. "Uh, sure. Sure! If you want to – I mean, if you want me to…"

"Of course I do!" She said. "I mean, yeah, whatever, if I didn't I wouldn't have asked…"

A grin started to break through on his face. "If you want, when we both get out of here, we could study some Spanish together?"

She bit her lip. "I'd like that."

As he followed Annie, he tried to shake the gross old man feeling. He wasn't sure if he would be able to fully get past the twenty year age difference, and the two foot height disparity, but he was going to give a damn good try.


End file.
